Chinese leader Xi Jinping will travel to North Korea next week for his first visit since 2019

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping will visit North Korea next week, the two countries announced Friday, which will be his first visit in nearly seven years.

His trip will be the latest in a series of moves by China to strengthen its close ties with its nuclear-armed neighbor, whose leader Kim Jong Un has reached out to Russia in recent years, including in send troops and conventional weapons to support its war against Ukraine.

Kim has also grown closer to China, the North’s largest trading partner and aid provider, over the past year.

“As North Korea strengthens ties with Russia, China seeks to use Xi’s trip to reassert its influence over Pyongyang and safeguard its strategic interests in Northeast Asia,” said William Yang, an analyst for the International Crisis Group.

Xi will make a state visit from Monday to Tuesday, state media in both countries said in brief dispatches. Her last visit it was June 2019.

The trip will take place in a few weeks after Xi welcomed American President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin follow one another in Beijing.

North Korea’s nuclear weapons program has long been a major concern and opposition to the United States. The UN has imposed economic sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear and missile development.

The trip announcement came a day after North Korea unveiled a new facility to produce the ingredients for nuclear bombs. The South Korean military has assessed the new nuclear facility as a uranium enrichment plant.

During a visit to the plant, Kim announced plans to strengthen the country’s nuclear forces “at an exponential rate.” Experts say the plant’s disclosure implies that Kim was eager to cement his country’s status as a nuclear-armed state before Xi’s visit.

Experts say Kim wants international recognition as a nuclear state so he can demand sanctions be lifted. They say Kim would eventually push for arms reduction negotiations with the United States to gain concessions in exchange for a partial surrender of his nuclear capability.

Kim has focused on expanding his nuclear arsenal since the collapse of his high-stakes diplomacy with Trump in 2019.

Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to restore diplomacy with Kim, but the North Korean leader has said the United States must first drop its demand for North Korea’s denuclearization as a precondition for negotiations.

Xi and Kim met in Beijing in September and pledged to support each other and strengthen cooperation. Kim was in the Chinese capital to attend a Chinese military parade alongside other foreign leaders, including Putin.

Russia and China, both veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council, have already thwarted efforts by the United States and other countries to strengthen international sanctions against North Korea, despite banning its weapons tests.

During their meeting in Beijing last month, Putin and Xi expressed opposition to North Korea’s “foreign policy isolation, economic sanctions, military pressure and other methods aimed at creating security threats,” according to a Kremlin statement.

Embracing ideas of a “new Cold War” and a multipolar world, Kim has advocated a more assertive foreign policy by expanding ties with countries engaged in confrontations with the United States.

Xi, who traveled widely during his first years in power, reduced international travel strongly since the COVID-19 pandemic. His last overseas trip was to South Korea last fall for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, where he spoke with Trump.

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Kim reported from Seoul, South Korea. Associated Press writer Simina Mistreanu contributed from Taipei, Taiwan.